The Shield Of The Dove
by SECTlON
Summary: Skye Coulson finally accomplished her life goal when she was admitted into one of America's renowned university - the Stanford. Leaving her luxurious life in Washington D.C, she flied to California where she'd spent the next four years of mayhem with her new-found friends and homework. But things are not exactly ordinary when you're the daughter of the President. AU. SkyWard.
1. Pilot

**Hey guys. So this is the first story I've ever written in this archive, and if you're reading this right now, thanks. That means the concept of this story is great enough for you to give it a try. And I'm quite happy of that.**

 **So I've had this concept a few days ago when finishing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. then watched White House Down. I mean, the concept is great, the characters are there and it promised to be an intriguing adventure so why not?**

 **Alright, so that's the thing. I won't hold you back any longer.**

 **Also beware, I haven't been to college or ever visited Stanford yet. Everything are just mere speculations and internet research of how college life works.**

 **COPYRIGHTS: No, I do not own the characters. All of them belonged to Marvel. I just own the concept. Oh, and not the school also.**

* * *

Skye admitted that she has made a huge mistake when she assumed that she's going to have an ordinary college life... as soon as she arrived on campus.

For about a week ago, she was overjoyed when she found the admittance letter from Stanford on her doorstep, accompanied by a satisfying curriculum including a major in Computer Science and two minors in Mathematical and Computational Science along with Electrical Engineering. She was proud of herself because of one, she has been accepted into one of America's most prestigious universities by herself and two, she finally have that privilege to announce to her parents that she's an independent and capable girl despise her family's powerful and rich background.

Though a life goal she has set was accomplished in a rain of confetti, a ridiculous fear that she think only she has was her own maximum _security_.

Literally.

The moment she stepped down the bus, Skye bit her lower lip in complete disappointment and annoyance as she, out of complete instinct, targeted three particular men out of the crowd of energetic freshmen, no doubt trying their best to blend into the chaos. Skye has been around the Secret Service agents for... almost her entire teenage time, she knew every of their tricks, their ways and their rules. Enough for her to sniff them out while they were playing their best card.

Apparently, being the adopted daughter of the President of the United States was not that fun. Because as soon as you gained the "First-Daughter" title, you may start to kiss privacy and ordinary goodbye.

And Skye distasted that more than anything else in her life.

She stood still on the pavement, observing her security details whom all have started to settle on contemplating the skies or folding their arms, watching the horde of students pouring into the campus. In Skye's eyes, they were not doing much of a good job at secrecy.

When the surrounding was cleared enough for her to be able to make a secure call, she pulled out her phone and dialed.

 _"Office of the President of the United States."_ Victoria Hand – her father's private secretary began.

"Victoria, this is Skye. Can you patch me to him?" She replied, voice laced with exasperation.

" _Is there anything wrong, Skye?"_

"Ah, it's nothing. I just need a quick talk about my… security." Skye sighed.

" _Patching you now_." She said and the line hung still.

 _"Skye?"_

"Dad, what did I told you about our "No ultra-max stiffy security robots" rule?" She gritted her teeth despised her abrupt funny sarcasm.

Skye was having a hard time accepting the concept of being stalked by armed men who wouldn't even hesitated to pop anyone's head who dared talking to her.

 _"I didn't do anything."_ He said with his usual calmed voice.

"Oh really? I'm looking at three of them on Search and Destroy mode just a few feet away. And they all got your name on it."

For a few seconds there was silence, then finally he confessed:

" _It's for your own good."_

"Sending super _oh-not-so-secret_ ninjas after me is for my own good? Dad, I'm just going to college. Is that really necessary?" She scoffed cheekily.

 _"Skye…"_ He began: _"…you're one of my most valuable treasure, and I certainly can't lose you. I'm already worried enough when you decided to fly for California on a commercial jet without any security. And with the world as it is today, and my job, I don't think I can follow that rule of ours. Only for your safety."_ He said sincerely and she felt herself slowly given in to his logic.

"I'm anonymous, no one knew who I am. Even you make sure that the news wouldn't know much about me." She desperately fought back.

It was true, when her father won the vote into the White House she has insisted that she was to be kept completely unknown. It was quite hard, seeing how famous Phillip Coulson was. But until then, the only thing the news knew was a mysterious daughter of the President whom no-one has ever seen before.

 _"It's only an illusion of anonymity, Skye. Someone out there might know who you are, and if they did, you might probably be in harm's way. These men are there to make sure that you are always safe, with people knowing your identity or not."_ He resolved and her hope balloon popped like a hand grenade.

"Fine… But if they're to be my security, they'll play by my rules, else and I'll have the faculty kicked them out." She said hotly before dropping the line and stuffed it back into her jeans' pocket. Fortunately she arrived quite early to still have twenty minutes to spare for her godforsaken babysitters.

She walked towards the nearest agent who was currently staring up at the skies like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He was young, around his thirties with jet black hair, fresh shaven beard and the standard stone face she knew so well.

"Excuse me, **sir**." She said with the sweetest voice she could muster.

He turned towards her with nonchalant expression, but the glint of confusion was hard to miss.

"Have you seen any Secret Agents around? I think I've lost them..." She narrowed her eyes and flashed him a sly smile. "You can drop it now. I don't think I've seen any terrorists."

Skye watched in morbid amusement as she observed the agent's eye twitched and he started to grumble under his breath of something. But it was not hard to say that he was annoyed by her award-winning sarcasm.

"Before we leave with me doing my study and _you_ do your duty, can I meet everyone and talked to them? Properly?" She crossed her arms and said earnestly.

"Sure, ma'am." He said before gesturing to his buddies, who all started to walk towards them. When they were close enough, she spoke:

"Before we start, mind giving me a brief introductory?"

There was a pause before the previous agent started:

"We're dispatched by mister President to act as your personal guards. I'm Agent Grant Ward, and this…" He pointed at an agent with dark brown Caesar Cut hair, and non-surprisingly, his eyes hidden behind the pair of shades. "Agent Lance Hunter."

"And you…?" She raised her eyebrows mockingly at the last agent with dark complexion and shaven head.

"Agent Mike Peterson, at your service" He said with a tiny nod.

"Alright then." She said energetically. Skye clearly was having fun experimenting on how far she could push before the word: _"Oh my god, you're annoying!"_ left their mouths.

And she planned for it to happen, soon.

"Let's go!" She waved and sprinted through the archway into a small path along the small lawn straight into the university, leaving the agents to catch up to her. With the map of the humongous campus in hand, Skye, half following the map, half following some others freshmen into Stanford.

This may not be that bad, after all.

* * *

Skye walked down the cemented sidewalk of Mayfield Avenue in the breezy and fresh air of a perfect Californian's afternoon. So far, she has had a lot of amazing impressions of Stanford and at that moment, Skye has started to rethink about the assumption of a horrific college life because so far, her flesh shield has not been activated yet.

And for that, she was graceful.

Along with a few others students, she walked towards – according to the small piece of paper folded neatly in her pocket – Florence Moore Hall where she supposed to live for the rest four years in peace with a mysterious room-mate at Stanford. For it being the first ever dorm room she has, needless to say she was excited. Mainly because most of her life with the Coulson's family has been spent in the North Western area of Washington D.C, the house with the address of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Not that she was un-graceful for having such honour. But she felt like she was under house-arrested in there. It was - ironically - nightmarish living in America's most luxury palace. Her calls were strictly encrypted, her Facebook was actively being watched, and her phone… she already felt dirty thinking about the crazy, bad but not less amazingly smart schemes she made up to just have it untouched by the security.

Now finally, she was as free as a bird. Well… a bird being forced to wear Kevlar body armor, but nonetheless, still free.

Skye snapped out of her childish imagination immediately as she reached the front porch of the Hall.

It was a large building accompanied by an aura of "Eco-friendly" to it. Modern-styled, tiled roof, fresh painted-looking walls with shiny translucent windows brightly promised a perfect view of the campus. In the front yard, a large parterre resided with everything you needed for a long, refreshing time of surfing the net, reading or studying in the sun including the benches and the strategically planted tree foliage for maximum shades.

Skye hasn't seen her house yet but, damn, she has already liked it.

Following the instruction on the paper, she followed the freshfaces (including herself) into the Hall and finally stopped in front of a building labeled _"Alondra"_. Checking in with the paper, she mused. That is exactly where she was supposed to be.

"Here we go…" She whispered before pushing the door in.

The lobby of the house was crowded with students hauling their stuffs up the stairs or continued forward through the corridor. Skye followed the crowd upstairs, where she took a right down the corridor and finally stopped in front of a wooden door.

She can already tell that someone, probably her future BFF was already inside.

Taking a deep breath to recollect herself, like how her Dad used to teach her. She walked in.

Skye didn't care much about the room at that moment. All she care was that " _over there"_ was kneeling with her back against Skye, rummaging through her luggage and occasionally throwing a few thick books up her bed.

"Um… hello?" She decided to call and the girl quickly turned around, her eyes widen.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there." She said with a rich British accent. Her room-mate was a girl around her age, slightly shorter and possessed a relatively beautiful looks with light brown hair and hazel eyes. There was some sort of an enthusiast and bright air around her that made Skye wanted to befriend her immediately.

And that's exactly what she did.

"Nah, it's okay. So… I heard that you're my room-mate." She smiled awkwardly.

"Of course! Hi, I'm Jemma Simmons. But just Simmons would do." She offered her hand and Skye took it.

"Skye Coulson. Call me Skye, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Simmons laughed good-heartedly: "Me too."

When they let go, Skye asked as she set her stuffs at the leg of the bed: "What are you doing?"

Simmons spoke as she returned to her bags: "I'm just sorting out the books to set on the shelf. I absolutely don't want everything to be a mess on the first day."

 _Oh, so she's a neat-freak._ Skye thought with a smile. She could be one sometimes, but most of the time she just has a total clean-up scheduled for maybe once a month.

"Speaking about books. What's your course?" Simmons said as she threw another book onto of the bed, eyes not leaving her bag.

"Well, I always have a knack for computers so I take a major on Computer Science and two minors in Mathematical and Computational Science and Electrical Engineering." She replied proudly.

"Hm… you and Fitz are going to be great friends." Simmons muttered with a lopsided smile.

"Fitz?" She asked, confused.

"Leopold Fitz in the next room. He's my best friend since elementary, he's just like you, took in everything he could pick that related in engineering and computer." She said while laughing.

"Well… I think I should meet this guy. What about you?"

"Um… I majored in Biology and minored in Bioengineering, Chemistry and Human Biology."

"So you get to dissect frogs?" She joked and earned a good laugh from Simmons: "Maybe."

The room was silence for a while and Skye has started to follow Simmons to sort her books out.

"So where did you come from, Skye?" Breaking the silence, Simmons asked.

Skye's hands ceased function immediately.

"What… what do you mean?" She spoke weakly, obviously prolonged the time to come up with a great lie.

"Duh, as in where do you live?" Simmons rolled her eyes. Probably thinking that she didn't pay attention much.

"I… uh…" She babbled. "…New York?"

The girl _hmmph_ -ed before speaking: "Is it great there?"

"Very." Skye spoke. In truth, she hasn't been to NY ever before. "Oh… what's your schedule tomorrow?" She shunned and Simmons seemed to catch the bait.

"Well, tomorrow I have…" She spun around to tell her but then frowned: "What are these guys doing there?"

Skye's eyes widened as she turned towards the door. Sure enough, the time with Simmons was so fun that she completely forgot about her details. The three of them are standing guard, each of them did their best to look less suspicious by either reading a magazine without ever flipping a page or sitting on the bench across the room, eyes scanning every move and anyone they deemed a threat.

Skye bit her lip.

"Maybe they're just waiting for their friends." She said then stood up and shut the door.

"Don't worry about them."

But Skye _did_ worry about them.

 _I am so going to ignore you for the rest of my life, Dad._ She thought bitterly.

* * *

 **Congratulation, you managed to read through this pilot chapter :)**

 **And I love you, very much. If you're reading this then this also means that you found this story well-written and intriguing enough for you to read till the end.**

 **Then leave a comment or a follow or something! I would love to know what you're thinking of my story or my writing!**


	2. The Welcome Committee

**Oh my god. I've absolutely exploded in joy when I checked the story this morning. You guys are… uber-amazing. I didn't expect to see that much favorites and follows for the first pilot chapter!**

 **Much love to people who has reviewed. I love reading them and they're the true motivation for this chapter to come out in just three hours!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **COPYRIGHTS: No, I do not own the characters, they're all the brain children of Marvel. And Stanford University belonged to… itself. I only own the concept and the plot, nothing else.**

* * *

Skye jolted awake with a serious vertigo as someone outside knocked loudly on the door. The sound reverberated back resembled of the record of the sound of a bomb exploding being played through a max-volumed boombox when it went through her sleepy ears.

Plus, the alien surrounding didn't help her condition at all.

She pulled herself up with her back against the headboard groggily and completely disoriented. With a quick glance to the left, she was quite surprise and also nervous when she found out that Simmons' bed was empty.

Skye turned towards the door and spoke:

"Who's there?"

"Agent Ward. The head of the House, a mister Alphonso McKenzie invited you to the welcoming dinner at the House's dining room. Would you like to come?" He told her.

Skye sighed and toppled over, curling into a ball on the bed as the haze of laziness and the immediate aftermath of the sleep hung over her. As another residue of being locked up in her room and the knowledge of being followed everywhere by Secret Service, Skye barely felt tempted to step outside like how she did just two hours ago anymore.

She remembered that as soon as she managed to stack the books in alphabetical order, a sudden, strong wave of weariness hit her and the last thing hanging into her memory was that she literally collapse face-first into the mattress to sank deep into a slumber.

 _Charming_. She suddenly imagined her father would've said so if he found her laying like a carelessly thrown dead-body on the bed.

…and despised her previous heady declaration of war. She started to miss _Phil_ \- her beloved Daddy.

The memories flowed back and filled her mind as soon as that exact keyword passed through her mind.

Phillips Coulson and Melinda Coulson weren't, _unfortunately_ , her biological parents. The nuns at the orphanage once told her the story of a 1988's windy and bland August evening. It was in that _blasted_ faithful night that her irresponsible parents left her in a baby carriage at the threshold of Saint Agnes' orphanage. It was there that she lived for eleven years in a silent wraith and as an empty husk of _Mary Sue Poots_ , coping day-to-day with the extreme emotional instability.

Those days were the darkest ink drops on her own history book.

And so, in a 1999's windy and blank August evening – just the exact second when her anniversary started – Mary took off onto the streets.

She remembered wandering for days aimlessly. The stocked foods she managed to steal run out, the clothes she wore started to stain with dirt and with time getting more and more tattered. She remembered those sympathetic and pitiful looks bystanders gave her, the humiliation, the loneliness.

Until an exact week later, Mary sprained her ankle when she tried to jump down from on top of an empty garbage where she took a temporal shelter that she finally broke: She missed the warm blanket, she missed the hot meals, she missed Sister Amelia's story times… she missed the things that she has left behind.

Mary regretted.

But then in that few instances, her life took a change for the _best_. Phillips – then a Senator – and May was walking hand-in-hand through the empty street of that early morning for May to go to work only a few blocks down and Phil to get to his office. Mary heard their conversations, but she can neither understood not cared about them. All she cared about at that moment was the pain, the tears and the past.

They walked pass the alley and Mary have thought that they were just the regular bystanders, and while thinking back, she was glad that she was wrong.

 _Mary_ remembered the couple asked about her condition, comforted her and fixed her ankle. She usually would took off or get away from them but then, she was so much deep in her thought that she'd just cry her eyes out and not giving a damn to anything.

After that, the book of Mary Sue Poots' closed, and a merrier and crazier book of Skye Emerald Coulson opened.

Skye chuckled accompanied with a sniff as she imagined the _"Promised to be merrier and crazier"_ part written on the first page of her book.

She realized she has been very emotional as she found out that she has been crying as she felt the familiar tingle of her nose and the tickle as droplets of tear streamed down her cheek.

 _So much for reminiscing._ She thought and wiped the tears away.

"I wasted five minutes for nothing." She muttered and got out of bed.

She grabbed the simple ash-grey hoodie hanging loosely on the arm-rest of the office chair, suited up and after a moment of wearing and lacing her black sneakers. She stepped out of the room.

Her guards responded almost instantly. Mike Peterson stood up from the bench, Lance Hunter closed the magazine and rolled it up like a scroll whilst Grant Ward lost his arms-crossing stance next to her door. Skye was happy that they folded away the shades, it'd have been very dumb wearing shades indoor and it also shattered her hypothesis that wearing shades was a regulation for these people.

"You ready to go, ma'am?" Ward said. His brown eyes peering into her blankly, the kind of blank look someone would give for a few seconds when you hit them in the head with a frying pan. But a thought suddenly formed at the far, far back of her mind:

" _Well… he didn't look that bad…"_

That scared her out of her wits.

So scared to the point that her sarcastic mode went offline instantly, so Skye managed to muster out an _I-don't-like-you_ grunt as she closed the door.

Skye walked down the deserted and quiet corridor, unlike the last time she has saw it. She kind of like the type of peaceful quiet which resided here, the simple decorated walkway actually made her felt more peaceful and at ease than the extremely fancy corridors of the White House. Because, somehow she knew that she will belong here more than ever than being at the House.

Skye walked down the stairs to the ground floor, with agent Hunter at the lead and the rest following close behind her at an acceptable distance. But even then, she still has the feeling of being cramped.

As soon as she touched down at the ground floor, the air was much more heated. Skye heard the faint talking and laughing of the students coming from behind a large door at the far end of the corridor to the left, so she took that bet. Pacing down the corridor and Hunter opened the door, keeping it open so she can pass through.

Despised the _perfecto_ cool atmosphere of the air conditioned room, Skye can confidently put that moment into her _"Ten Of Those Moments When You're Most Embarrassed"_ list as she felt several pairs of eyes stuck on her. But then surprisingly:

"Lady's first... Oh, Skye, have I ever told you about that time?" Hunter spoke aloud with a flashing smile. Skye's eyes widened in confusion and as she glanced around, the two others separated as if they were just strangers to the end of the dining room.

"Oh… um… maybe?" She replied with an awkward and forced laugh then sighed in relief as the eyes looked away.

In another surprising turn of her Secret Agents' shenanigans, when she walked pass Hunter, she actually whispered: _"Thank you."_

At the corner of her eye, she saw a brief shrug then Hunter also walked away, probably retreating to a corner where he can has a good observation of the room like the rest of her details.

"Skye!" She heard the relatively familiar British voice called and she turned towards the source. Exactly, it was Simmons.

"Come here, we're about to start!" She spoke excitedly and Skye couldn't help but smile.

"Start what?" She asked over the loud noise of the talking then took an empty seat next to Simmons.

"I don't know, Mack called it the "Alondra Gala" or something earlier. He said it's a tradition of this house to have a big party greeting new students." She explained then giggled.

"Wow. I love this school." She leaned back on her chair.

"I know right. It's amazing here…" She paused and spiked up with the same antic again: "Oh, Skye. This is the Fitz I told you about."

Simmons pushed her chair back a little for Skye to see the guy.

For the description that dangerously resembled of a die-hard nerd, this _Fitz_ didn't look bad at all. Possessing a dirty blonde hair colour and eyes with a brilliant shade of blue, Fitz can definitely took a toll on those typical smart woman… like Simmons, and in Simmons' case… like Fitz.

They seemed to be a great couple when she started to actually think about it, but Skye certainly was not the kind of girl to play matchmaker.

"Hi. You're Skye, right? Simmons just told me a lot about you." He spoke up in a heavy Scottish accent.

"And you must be Fitz." She smiled courteously

"It's actually Leo." He said as he took a quick _What-have-you-done?_ glance at Simmons. "But Fitz is okay."

"Huh… that's weird. You guys don't mind me asking but why do you call each other by last names?" She asked curiously, but also cautiously. Skye didn't actually want to offense her first few friends on the first day of college.

"It's okay. Simmons started it first when we were in Elementary and I hid her books, I retorted and… guess it just stuck with us." Fitz said between chuckles.

She laughed out loud. "I don't know you love your books that much, Jemma."

She just hummed and looked at the end of the table.

"I guess it's starting!" She exclaimed. Skye and Fitz turned in unison towards where Simmons was looking at.

There, at the end was a large, American football player-like guy with a dark complexion. Though the first thing that hit Skye's mind was the image of a typical bully but when she looked at the applauses and jokes from the older students, she guessed this Mack was much respected by the people around here.

He tapped the microphone a few times and said:

"One, two, three. Alright. Hello new citizens!" He exclaimed and the room exploded in cheers.

"A very big occasion tonight, indeed. And I'm very, very, very, _veryy…_ glad to see some new faces around Alondra. At least I won't be bored with seeing the same mudfaces over and over again for now."

The whole, large table laughed in unison and some scattered can be heard. Probably from Mack's friends.

"We are a family now, yes, you including." He walked down and tapped a random boy's shoulder. Earning himself some scattered laugh.

"You must have been very hungry by now. So, I won't be holding you back any longer, welcome to Stanford. Let's. PARTY!" He yelled through the microphone but somehow, the cheers from the students even doubled his amplified voice. Everyone stood up and eagerly paced to the buffet tables at two side of the room, filled with beautiful and saliva-dropping dishes.

"Wait!" Mack called again suddenly and everyone froze on the spot. The room suddenly went silence again.

There was a pause as everyone looked at Mack.

"Tomorrow…" he read from a small piece of paper: "English 101, Math 141, Psychology 100, History 150,…"

As soon as the students realized that Mack was ruining their fun with the schedule, they erupted in _Boo…_ , some students tried to shove Mack off the stage.

Skye has never have this much fun in her life as she was laughing her head off.

"This is amazing!" She yelled to Simmons over the electro music plus the talking.

"I know! Let's get something to eat!" She replied with the same volume and they made their way towards the buffet table.

Then suddenly, her eyes drifted pass agent Ward, who was standing with his usual crossing arms pose in a corner, watching her. Skye suddenly felt guilty. She was there, enjoying herself while the three agents were separate across the room, trying to protect… her. Plus… she couldn't believe she was thinking about it but… maybe they hasn't eaten anything at all during the whole day.

She closed her eyes and scrunched her eyebrows making a decision.

"You okay?" Simmons asked and Skye released the breath she was holding. She smiled and just nodded.

"Go on." She gestured and the girl quickly slinked away whilst she walked towards Ward.

"Is there anything wrong, ma'am?" He asked.

"Well… seeing this is a party and…" She struggled to make a sentence that sounded as less emotions as possible. "…you guys haven't eaten anything all day. Why not grab a plate? No worry, you can sit with me though." She said awkwardly, thinking that her dialogue was still a bit too caring.

Skye looked up and met Ward's analysing and confused eyes.

"So? What do you say?" She spoke and straightened up, but she knew it was futile as she felt the heat on her cheeks.

 _God. I'm stupid._

"If you insist." He nodded and put a finger on his ear, calling his team-mates. She exhaled in relief. "Thank you." Ward said.

Somehow, Skye felt a strange, alien warmth made its way through her veins as she walked away. Ward's simple thanks still hanging in her mind.

She shivered and shook the thought away. Joining the party.

* * *

 **That's it! I really like to write the end though, it's just so damn funny.**

 **Anyway, leaves a fav, follow or review if you like this story! It fuelled mein motivation!**


	3. The Hangover

**Okay so I warned you that this one is set ONLY in the morning of the first day. Alright, I'm sorry okay, you will found some others apologies at the end of this chapter. A bit spoiler that there's no classes yet because I ran out of time today, and I have absolutely no time to cover for writing tomorrow since I have to attend a wedding.**

 **So yes, I'm sorry, I did my best to extend it further into like… half of the class or something but it just wouldn't do so… I hope you understand.**

 **COPYRIGHTS: Told you before I don't own a single characters here. Just the plot and the story.**

* * *

Skye's official first day in Stanford started with a horrible hangover.

She didn't know if it was because she drank too much champagne last night or not, to be honest, she didn't even know if she has overdrunk herself last night. But the last time she checked, she hasn't seen anyone getting drunk by drinking champagne ever before! But judging by how she wore everything to bed, including her sneakers and how un-courteously she laid when she first woke up… Skye put the obvious answer into its place and then questioned her own alcohol tolerance.

"I need Advil." She croaked out to herself. "…and anti-fun overload."

She giggled tiredly. Maybe, only maybe her head was still not quite clear after all.

Being alone and isolated for most of her life, it is quite hard for Skye to not develop a habit of monologuing ridiculous lines that she made up, which obviously would do a better job at speaking with real, actual people than to herself. But, you know, life happened and she forever lost that latter choice.

Another perk of being the "First-Daughter."

Skye looked to the left and saw Simmons, she was sleeping rather soundly. On top of that, she didn't even look close to a horrific after-party disaster like how she did and, yes, that was as un-fair as how it sounded. But a bunch of stuffs on her bedside table caught her eyes and Skye crawled clumsily to the end of the bed to check them out.

There was a filled cup of water, a round pill (after almost half a minute focusing on the engravings) turned out to be Aspirin, a large size cup of a mysterious drink from Starbuck… and a small sticky note stuck on the cup of water. Out of curiosity, she torn it away and read:

 _You were very drunk last night having about half a dozen champagne flutes. I have to carry you back to your room, and Mike went grocery shopping last night getting you this survival kit._

 _The coffee's mine. It should be cold when you read this, but it's still drinkable. Hope you like it chill._

 _P/S: Drink every drop of water. It'll help the headache._

 _\- Agent Ward._

At the beginning of the note, Skye was already having trouble keeping her jaw shut. The bewilderment and the embarrassment totally won over her first ever hangover, her mind clicked into gears immediately. He _carried_ her back? And they brought her _this_? Never before has Skye seen any of her caretakers being helpful for once after she purposely being a jerk the first time to anyone who was unfortunate enough to be her details.

And Skye found herself thankful that they… didn't get annoyed. And she was thankful, truly, without being sarcastic.

With a confused face but also an appreciative tiny lopsided smile, she drank up the pill, made sure that she emptied the cup and finally, picked up the straw and stabbed it into the Starbuck's cup, though she left it idly on the table. Skye quickly checked the wall clock.

 _5:45_. It read.

Good, that meant she have a tons of time to spare. And so she paced into the bathroom leisurely.

It was not really big compared to her old ones, of course, but at least it was prepared beforehand by the school with the necessary toiletry to be clean and normal for a week before she prepared her own stuffs. So Skye stepped in and deliberately took the blue plastic toothbrush out of the white ceramic cup on the sink then started to brush her teeth.

This school was a dream of every students. She didn't know that they allowed the students to drink alcohol on the first day of school, or even having a big welcoming party **not** hosted by the school itself but by its students instead. The level of freedom the faculties giving the students transcended into the level of a community built upon the students' satisfaction and trust more than boring homework and cruel teachers… But it is, for the moment, just Skye's pure imagination for she hasn't met any teachers and staffs yet. Maybe they could be quite… scary or so.

 _It would be quite funny if I found out the party was in fact an illegal ones._ She thought and couldn't contain a bubbly smile.

Skye spitted the toothpaste out, rinsed and quickly showered her face with the tap's water. The power of Aspirin cooperated with the freezing cold water forced her out of the hangover almost immediately, her face stung a bit with the sudden cold but Skye was okay with that. Taking the chance, she also dampened her bedhead to smooth it out, though got dotted by a few cowlicks here and there but she deemed them acceptable enough to not fuzz all over it. She shook her hands dry and walked out of the bathroom, not forgetting to grasp the small furry towel on the shelf next to the door on the way out.

Simmons was already awake.

"Oh. You're awake." She said, scrubbing the towel against her wet hair. "I woke you?"

"Nah. I'm just a morning person." She said with a grin then rubbing her eyes and gave a yawn.

"…and I'm a night owl." Skye sighed then stepped aside to give way for Simmons.

"Yesterday night you were totally wrecked." She laughed mischievously while Skye narrowed her eyes, unamused.

"It's the first time I tasted alcohol. So of course." She shrugged and grabbed the Starbuck on the table.

"Really?!" Simmons exclaimed and stared back at her in shock from the bathroom.

The straw was only half way from her mouth before she glanced back: "What?"

"Skye! You **never** tasted alcohol in your life until last night?!" Simmons blinked rapidly. On Skye's part, she wondered what was so scary about it.

"Yes…?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She knew Simmons was totally exaggerating matters at this point.

"Prom?" She inquired and Skye simply shook her head, her face totally indifference.

"Graduation?"

"Nope." She shook her head again.

"When you and your family received the acceptance letter?" Simmons pushed on.

"Nuh-uh. And what does this have to do with my life anyway?" She pursed her lips and rested both of her hands on her hip. Completely annoyed but also a bit amused.

"Because, _duh_ , it marked when you become an adult!" Jemma rolled her eyes like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "And by that, I mean you just become an adult like… yesterday!"

She raised both of her hands in surrender: "Since I don't understand your life's standpoint, no comment."

Phil and May never, _ever_ allowed her to touch alcohol, even when she was a sophomore.

 _It wouldn't do you any good besides manipulate you into doing weird things and gave you terrific headache in the morning._ Either of them would say so when she tried to reach out for an alcoholic drink in a party, a bar or tried to order it in a restaurant they would go together in some of Phil's rare downtime. To give you a more accurate picture of how strict this rule was, even cocktails were forbidden.

But she wouldn't come clean and say something alone the line: _"Because I'm the favourite princess of your ruler. And he's strict so… anyway, bow!"_

Nope.

"Strict family." She shrugged and dibbed her head for the straw.

"But…"

"No but! I'm dying to have caffeine here and you're preventing me from it!" She grumbled impatiently and just dug in. She fought back a moan as the relatively cold but still bearable liquid passed her throat, the caffeine enhanced the effect of the previous stimulus. Bringing her to an almost hyper state.

"Okay then…" She muttered and closed the door. Skye felt a bit guilty but she decided not to apologize, now that she knew Simmons a bit better, she uncovered another part of her nature was exaggerating… things that aren't worth exaggera…ting?

Anyway, as soon as she have enough caffeine in her system to feel like her normal self again, she decided to head out and finally confront the guys. Armed with a few burning questions, she pushed the door open and stepped out into the quiet corridor.

The men acted like how she predicted them to be, the trio quickly stopped whatever they were doing, stood up and readied themselves. She raised her hand:

"No, I'm not leaving yet. Just… just want to talk." She mustered out with all her might the last sentence.

An incredibly awkward silence hung in the air, and when Skye decided none of them intended to reply, she started:

"Why… why would you do that?"

"Do what?" Ward returned.

"Help me survive my first ever hangover?" She asked.

There was a slight pause before Hunter spoke: "We're just doing our job, and it's our job to protect you."

Her fingers twitched nervously: "Yes, I know but… even when I'm a jerk to all of you?"

Mike immediately replied: "No you're not. Believe me, we're not that annoyed."

"Really?" She narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Yep." Hunter nodded and… grinned.

Skye was totally flabbergasted. She has never seen any agents showing any sorts of affection before. But after a brief moment of surprise, she returned with a grin of her own.

"You know what… thanks. The agents back at the House weren't very helpful at all so you know, it destroys further my belief in you guys." She explained and scratched the back of her head. Skye couldn't believe she has finally began to warm up with her bodyguards.

"Then maybe they didn't do their job right." Ward said and crossed his arms. But somehow, out of complete instinct, Skye avoided his eyes and flushed.

"Maybe. And… thanks, _Ward_." She chirped.

"It's no problem. So when will you ready to go?"

"A moment now. I think we'll head down to breakfast early, we'll wait for Simmons and… hang on a minute, I'll take my stuffs."

* * *

It was possible to say that a full breakfast was non-existent in Stanford. Turned out, they didn't need to wait for the rest of the House to come down for breakfast but instead, they can grab anything they wanted and go anywhere they wanted without a problem. So she made herself an easy and tasty ham sandwich, a carton of orange juice then shoved everything down a bag for later. Skye wasn't particularly hungry at that moment, actually she felt like if she had even a simple piece of fried she'd vomit all over the floor.

Yep, not appealing at all.

Then the agents surprised her yet again when they revealed they already rented five bicycles in advance, gladly, they also counted Jemma's. The girl thanked them frantically.

"So where do you go first?" Simmons asked and jumped up her bike. The men did the same and Skye admitted that all three of them picked three all-black bike for themselves: Their holy colour.

 _Secrecy is the key._ She smugly thought.

"Oh, I have… Cryptography I in Gates Computer Science building." She announced and Ward also pulled out a map for himself to check the route.

"Biology I in Gilbert Biological Sciences. Oh hey, we're actually next to each other." Simmons said and Skye chuckled.

"Kay. I'll see you there, been a while since I do this though." She said and stepped on her bike's pedals. It was wobbly at first but she soon got the old experiences back. Her friend and bodyguards quickly caught up.

In a flash, Hunter was already ahead of her, leading the way like how he did on the stairs yesterday. Skye took a quick glance back and saw the pair of agents rode protectively on each side, forming a triangular bubble sandwiched Simmons and Skye.

"Skye, it felt like they're protecting us." Simmons giggled and Skye just rolled her eyes, whispering to herself: "You have no idea."

* * *

 **Yes, again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I promised the next one will. Deepest apologize and thank you for reading!**

 **Leave a review, fav or follow if you like this story.**

 **See you :)**


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